Island of Shadows
by Dante Must Die
Summary: AU. When his family's private jet crashes on a tropical island in the middle of the ocean, Togami is seemingly the only survivor. Things quickly take a bizarre turn, and he realizes he's not as alone as he first thought...


The scent of smoke and hot iron was thick in the air, almost nauseating. He glanced around, taking everything in, still half-dazed in the midst of the accident.  
It was all very strange, really; he could recall the toxic smell of burning rubble, even saw the image of the ruined plane on the shore of a beach burning bright in his mind's eye, but he saw nothing that could commit this was the truth.

A stretch of white sand, and beyond that sea and sky melted into one. It made no sense- where was the billowing black smoke, the flames burning on the water?  
Togami didn't even realise he was shaking until he tried to place the glasses- miraculously undamaged- back on his face. He didn't know what to do, so he just sat there on the beach, confused, numb, thoughts erratic. They would overflow, come all at once in a jumbled mess, and then they would be reduced to a trickle, and he would be unable to think.

After a moment, his senses partly came back to him, and it didn't take him long to realise he needed to get out of the sun, find shade, move. The thought of giving himself a once-over for injuries hadn't even crossed his mind, so it came as even more a shock when he attempted to stand and immediately felt his knees buckle instead.

Togami looked down, saw a shiny piece of glass jammed deep into his knee. It was only bleeding a little bit- not nearly as bad as he would have thought- but the skin around it was an angry shade of red, and his leg was stiff. He couldn't move it at all.

Cursing, he moved to pull the glass out, but stopped, hesitating, his hand hovering just above it. Even if it wasn't bleeding badly now, that didn't mean when he took it out it wouldn't, right? Not to mention, he wouldn't be able to walk on that leg with his knee ruined, anyway. He stopped, sighed, and rubbed his forehead, trying to calm himself down, think of a way to get out of the open like this.

He didn't have much of a choice, so he twisted around to where his leg would stay straight and dragged himself forward. It was a long, tedious process, and by the time he reached the jungle line, the sky seemed darker, somehow, deeper.

Togami leaned against the base of a tree, allowing himself to rest for a moment before taking a second look at the wound. He couldn't tell how deep it was. His leg was surprisingly numb, and whether that was a good or bad thing, well, he didn't know. It was also impossible to tell what time it was. He had read about the tropics once, a couple of years ago. It was a huge, leather-bound informational book that came in a set that was produced twenty, thirty years prior, and in its pages it contained just about everything he would need to know if he were stranded in the wilderness. A lot of help that did, he thought bitterly. No matter how hard he tried to will the information back, it just didn't come.

Maybe he was still in shock from the accident. Maybe after he calmed down more, got the glass out of his leg, he'd be able to remember what the book said then.  
Or maybe he wouldn't, maybe the information would never come back to him, and he would just lay out there in the intense heat of the sun until he died.

Togami very quickly abandoned these thoughts, turned his attention back to the matter at hand. He could not tell how deep it was, just looking at it, but the tip stuck out, widening as it tapered down off to the side before disappearing beneath the skin. He could get a grip on it with his thumb and forefinger, but his hands were slick with sweat and it took several moments before he built up the courage to actually go through with it.

He gripped it, squeezed his eyes shut, and pulled. A tremendous bolt of pain shot up his leg, exploded in the core of his body. He could feel it in his bones. It was

_overwhelming_

and he couldn't move

_open your eyes_

or breathe.

Togami sat there, for how long he didn't know. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours.  
He didn't want to look

_but you have to_

but he opened his eyes anyways because he had to get it out. It was sticking haphazardly out of his knee, blood beginning to rise around it, spilling out into a puddle below him. But he had managed to move it, at least. He could see that from just looking at it.

And so he braced himself again, this time wrapping his whole hand around the glass edge, and

_one, two, three_

out it came. He heard a sickening popping noise, like a suction cup being pulled away from glass, nearly threw up. A hot, bright red substance began gushing from the knee as if somebody had turned a faucet.

Togami took a long look at the shard. It was wicked, shaped vaguely like a dagger; starting square then curving jaggedly to the left. It must have been about three inches long. He felt sick, tossed it away from him, into the sand.

_out of sight, out of mind_

He tried to tend to the open wound on his leg, but it seemed as though all he could do was stare at it. He felt panic, uncharacteristic for him, and he couldn't move or think. Bood was pouring out of him, and all he could do was sit and gawk?

A strange noise from nearby attracted his attention. Togami glanced up, saw two figures running down the beach. He tried to call out to them, but his throat was so dry that it barely produced a noise. He watched as the figures slowed down, apparently saw the drag marks in the sand, and stopped, staring at them.

One was following the tracks with their eyes, and then looked directly at Togami.

Wait.

Something's... wrong.

_The face- it's gone! There is no face!_

His heart skipped a beat, and he sat there, glued to the spot, as the faceless figure stared

_or how is it staring_

_can it see_

directly at him.

The two figures started to move towards him, big, dark, broad-shouldered beasts. Togami shrieked, and before he knew what he was doing, he clumsily stood and bolted into the jungle. He was tearing through the foilage - _running! running!_ - and he didn't know how, or why. The injured leg dragged stiffly alongside, each footfall sending a new jolt of pain up his spine.

And just like that, someone or something reached out of the shadow of the foilage and pulled him down with them. He had half a mind to scream until he saw a perfectly

_thank god_

normal human face staring down at him.

His mind went totally blank. He couldn't read the features, couldn't tell if they were male or female or see their eye colour... It felt the way a candle wick burning out looks. Slow and gradual, a numb feeling... Then nothing at all.


End file.
